In recent years, the fast food service industry has experienced an explosion in growth. That growth has resulted in dramatically increased sales of take-out beverages. The industry has come to demand functional, convenient, inexpensive containers and lids for both hot and cold beverage service. Particularly relevant to the field of the present invention are lids required for use in hot beverage take-out service.
In order to supply such hot beverages to an increasingly mobile customer base, certain functional criteria must be considered in designing suitable hot beverage container lids. Successful designs have met the industry required criteria of being easily manufactured, being susceptible of compact storage for shipment and dispensing, and being inexpensive so as to be disposable following a one time use.
It has been observed, however, that certain other considerations have not been well met in the prior art. Specifically, on-the-go consumers are often concerned with the convenience, ease, and speed in adding condiments, such as sweeteners and creamers, to hot beverages such as coffee, tea, or the like. The industry and its consumers alike are concerned with ways to reduce or prevent the accidental injuries which often occur due to splashing or overturning of such hot beverages.
The design of such lids seemingly has been especially challenging, given that many hot beverages are served at drive-through windows. Wisely or not, consumers may attempt to add condiments to hot beverages while seated in a moving vehicle. Because contemporary hot beverage service lids provide limited access to the hot beverage for purposes of adding such condiments, consumers often remove the lid from the beverage container to add the desired condiments. It is often during this activity that injurious splashes or spills of the hot beverage occur.
Additionally, dripping of the hot beverage is a common experience. The source of such dripping is often attributable to insufficient sealing of the lid periphery against the rim of the cup. This is so because contemporary insulated paper cups are manufactured with a seam joining overlapping edges of the paper. This seam results in a step-type misalignment adjacent the surface of the cup. Because the rim of the cup is formed by rolling the upper edge thereof, the gap ultimately formed between the lid and the cup rim tends to increase. Depending upon the consumer's orientation of the cup when drinking, the resulting gap may result in dripping of the beverage from between the lid and the cup rim at the seam of the cup.
Recognizing this inconvenience, others have provided lid designs intended to increase the hoop strength of the lid. Examples of such designs may be found by referring to U.S. Pat. No. 5,460,286 to Rush et al. Such designs, even when effective, do not completely solve the problem so presented.
Further compounding the dripping problem, certain prior art lids remove the continuous seal between the cup and the lid adjacent the rim surface, as in those designs that utilize a "tear-back" tab portion of the cup lid. An example of such a design may be seen by referring to U.S. Pat. No. 4,738,373 to DeParales. The seal often is not reestablished well enough to prevent the hot beverage from leaking at the exposed junctures between the rim and the lid.
In addition, the "tear-back" tab portion of such a cup lid design may not stay firmly in its open position and can interfere with the consumer while drinking. Furthermore, the edges adjacent the "tear-back" tab portion which are left when the tear is effected can sometimes be sharp. These edges may feel uncomfortable to the consumer while drinking, and in some cases may cut the consumer's mouth.
Other inconveniences may be seen in referring to the prior art. Some lids, commonly referred to as "drink-through" cup lids, can be somewhat difficult for the consumer to drink from. The openings may be inconvenient, involving distortions of the lid from the user's mouth during drinking, as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,214 to Dart et al. Sometimes, the flow of the beverage allowed to pass through the openings may be substantially reduced, as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,898,299 to Herbst et al. The reduced beverage flow provided through some such lids may not be sufficient to satiate the consumer.
What is needed and apparently not heretofore available is a hot beverage cup lid which is effective in reducing the spills, splashes, and drips attendant to disposable hot beverage containers of the contemporary fast food service industry. The hot beverage cup lid should be effective in reducing such spills, splashes, and drips, without significantly impeding such flow of the beverage as the consumer may desire. Such a hot beverage cup lid should empty completely. Such a hot beverage cup lid, further, be susceptible of providing the consumer with the ability to safely and conveniently add desired condiments to a hot beverage without necessitating removal of the lid. Additionally, such a hot beverage cup lid should be comfortable to the consumer during use, attractive in design, inexpensive to manufacture, convenient to transport and store, and disposable.
It is the recognition of defects observed within the prior art hot beverage cup lids, combined with the recognition of those needs recited hereinabove, which has formed the objects and the basis for the present invention. It is, therefore, to the provision of such a hot beverage cup lid that the present invention is primarily directed.